Archives for May 2013

Pollock Communications is honored to accept the Public Relations Society of America Big Apple Award for its stellar work and results promoting the health benefits of drinking tea through the Fifth International Scientific Symposium on Tea & Human Health. Pollock was one of five finalists competing for the award in the category of Events & Observances: Government, Associations & Non-Profit Organizations. We are delighted to share this award with our client, The Tea Council of the USA!

This week Yahoo is trying to make a comeback as they have been seeing a gradual decline in recent years. On Monday it became official that the major search engine has purchased the blogging-service Tumblr for $1.1 billion. In comparison with other monster companies Facebook purchased Instagram last year for $1 billion and Google purchased YouTube for $1.6 billion in 2006.

So what happens to these companies when they’re purchased? Advertisements. Sales. Clutter. Those things that take up your sidebar and even interrupt the middle of your computer or mobile screen when all you want to do is look at comments and posts your friends wrote or took pictures of. Chief Executive of Yahoo Marissa Mayer who decided on the acquisition has now put in for a long-shot/long-term result process. Although the combination of the two powerhouses will be an immediate plus in numbers for Yahoo in terms of visitors and demographics, there are many concerns already rising.

Yahoo has made it clear that they don’t want to ruin the functionality that Tumblr has already, but there are worries of Yahoo’s influence transforming the site into a more corporate and straight-edge version compared to its original purpose of individuality per each blogger. There is also concern over the previously existing content and image of the site. In 2009 Tumblr was almost 80% adult related content and gave it a particular reputation that still lingers. Now they’ve minimized that content to about 5%. But what about when Yahoo decides to “ramp up” Tumblr’s dashboard? Will it become the next Facebook with endless advertising that consumers argue about every time there’s a new update that resets your settings and spams your homepage with ads? Tumblr was started by a guy, David Karp, after he dropped out of high school for the preference of home schooling and wanted a new, uninhibited way to share what interests him and others. Wasn’t that a similar aim of what Zuckerberg was going for? What kind of future does Tumblr have to look forward to and what sort of pattern might we be seeing for all social media platforms these days?

Yahoo doesn’t have the greatest track record for big purchases, as seen by its failed purchase of Geocities for $3 billion. Maybe Mayer has a new strategy and understanding of the relationship between social media and general media. The coming months will tell if her gut feeling was the right one.

Obama has just appointed Nicole Wong, former Twitter lawyer, as the White House’s Chief Privacy Officer—a brand new position for the government. If you’re like us, you thought, “Wow, that’s smart.”

Finding the right person was no easy task considering there’s not a huge pool of people to choose from. Internet privacy is a relatively new concept, yet this job requires someone with loads of experience.

Enter Nicole Wong. She’s had to deal with hacks, addressing governments that want to sensor, police request she deemed out-of-line and more. No, she wasn’t Chief Privacy Officer at Twitter (or Google, where she worked before), and no she doesn’t have government experience, yet the skills she has are really relevant to the new job she’ll be handling in government.

So that got us thinking. In a PR agency, we tend to be jacks of all trades—pitchers, writers, event planners, strategizers, etc. But beyond that, if you look around your office, there’s a chance everyone possesses skills that aren’t specifically related to PR, but still offer a lot toward the job at-hand. At PCI, as we look to hire a new SAE, we’re reminded of this.

Don’t just look at standard PR skills when searching for a team member or expanding your capabilities. Instead, look to people’s other skills and passions as a way of rounding out the team you have and the services you offer—whether you’re looking for a new employee or simply growing from within.

Here are a few “non-PR” skills and personalities we’ve seen over the years that can really help an agency:

The person in the office who always seems to wear a new fad just before it shows up everywhere

You’ve got a trend-spotter who is likely great at crafting trend pitches.

Anyone who’s worked as a restaurant server or host

Customer relations at its finest—these people are usually great at making clients and the media feel taken care of on a daily basis.

Have a great gift wrapper in the office?

Use them to make new product kits look beautiful, wrap client gifts or come up with creative event decor

Former retail employees

As people who are used to rattling off product attributes and answering questions on the spot, they’re often great brand ambassadors if you’re ever doing a sampling program.

While some things will always be important to PR people—writing skills, detail orientation and efficiency to name a few, it can be the little, seemingly unrelated things that make an employee stand out and fit right in.

Childhood obesity. It’s a phrase referenced in the media constantly. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years, and in 2010, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.1-2

These statistics, and the increase in public awareness of childhood obesity, make it more important than ever to take the time to teach kids how to cook healthy meals for themselves and their families. ShopRite supermarkets took matters into their own hands last month, emphasizing the role of their in-store dietitians.

ShopRite retail dietitians rolled out programming for Kids Cook Monday, a public health initiative begun by the non-profit Monday Campaigns. “The Kids Cook Monday program is a natural fit for what our dietitian team is already doing within the store, both in store and within their local communities. We believe that setting children up with healthy behaviors and skills provides them with them with a strong foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating,” said Melanie Dwornik, Wakefern’s retail dietitian supervisor, in a Supermarket News article.3

During the free, in-store events, retail dietitians convey their messages through interactive demonstrations and full cooking classes with a new recipe highlighted each month, helping kids and their parents learn how to prepare healthier meals. ShopRite plans to hold Kids Cook Monday events at least once a month in all stores, and the frequency in each store might vary depending on local demand.

As ShopRite continues their program, other retailers should take note!

1. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of obesity and trends in body mass index among US children and adolescents, 1999-2010. Journal of the American Medical Association 2012;307(5):483-490.2. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2011: With Special Features on Socioeconomic Status and Health. Hyattsville, MD; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2012.3. Liz Webber. Shoprite Dietitians Teach Kids Healthy Cooking. Accessed May 6, 2013. http://supermarketnews.com/health-amp-wellness/shoprite-dietitians-teach-kids-healthy-cooking

Whether it’s due to the economy or to the desire to eat healthier and know where our food is coming from – or both – there has been a definite shift from eating out and making unhealthy choices, to cooking at home and making a conscientious effort to select nutritious foods. In fact, over the past several years, consumers have been eating at home more and more. Last year alone, there was a 72% increase in cooking at home over the previous year. And as consumers cook more, they are looking for new flavors and ways to add fruits and vegetables to meals. These are just some of the recent shifts that are impacting consumer food choices and will continue to affect the food industry. The below article, “Top 10 Food Trends” from the April issue of Food Technology takes a deeper look at the changes and how they are shaping current food trends. Click here to read the full article.